Annotation:To Rodney We will go
X:1 T:To Rodney we will go M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:James Aird – Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, B:vol. 3 (Glasgow, 1788, No. 415, p. 160) N:”Humbly dedicated to the Volunteers and Defensive Bands of N:Great Britain and Ireland” Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G D|(GB).B.B|(cB)(AG)|(Bd).d.d|d2 zB|cecA|BdBG|cAGF|G2-G:| |:c|Bdge|fddc|Bdge|f2 d(e/f/)|(gf)(ed)|(ed)(cB)|cd e(f/g/)|Tf2B2| (GB).B.B|(cB)(AG)|(GB) .d.d|Td2 zB|cecA|BdBG|cAGF|G3:|]
TO RODNEY WE WILL GO. AKA and See "Brags of Washington (The)," "Hussey's Maggot," "Jack the Jolly Ploughboy," "Jolly Plowman (1)," "Jolly Ploughman (1)." English, Country Dance Tune and/or Quickstep (2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABA'. "To Rodney We will go" is another tune in traditional repertory honoring British naval officer wikipedia:George_Brydges_Rodney,_1st_Baron_Rodney (1718-1792), hero of the wikipedia:Battle_of_the_Saintes in 1782. The melody's song structure (AABA') belies that it was used for a number of songs over the years (see note for "annotation:Jack the Jolly Ploughboy"), and there was a song with the refrain "To Rodney we will go" that retained considerable popularity until Wellington's victories in the Peninsula caused him to supersede Rodney as the popular hero. After Waterloo, the melody was used yet again for a song with the refrain "To Wellington we'll go, we'll go." Lucy Broadwood writes: "It is recognized among song-collectors in England as one of the stock tunes amongst the least old and interesting sung by the unlettered. Various sets of rather worthless words, as well as doggerel songs on historical or local persons, are sung to the air. 'With Collingwood we'll go' is one Sussex version, Collingwood being the naval hero of Nelson's time, and the contemporary of Rodney"[1].
James Aird printed the 'Rodney' tune twice in his Glasgow-based publications, in his third volume of Selections, and again in the sixth volume of 1803 (p. 63) wherein it is identified as a "quickstep." The tune was entered by British army fifer John Buttery in his large early 19th century music manuscript collection, evidently copied from Aird's sixth collection as he uses the title that includes 'quickstep'.
The not-always-reliable musicologist Grattan Flood maintained the tune's provenance was Irish, citing it's being collected from a gentleman-piper in the mid-19th century, as "Hussey's Maggot." Flood claimed to have found the tune in a manuscript of 1773, and to have published it for the first time. Frank Kidson admits the air has some affinity to "To Rodney we will go," but points out the tune was in wide circulation in the Britain and Ireland under a number of titles, not the least in print in Longman, Lukey and Co.'s Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1772 under the title "Herefordshire Lasses," and, as "Gold Ring" in John Johnson's Twelve Country Dances for 1749.
- ↑ Lucy Broadwood, Letter to the Editor, Musical Times, vol. 52, No. 815 (Jan. 1, 1911), p. 27.